The Titan Probe

By: Brandon Q. Morris

Narrated by: Doug Tisdale Jr.

Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's Summary

In 2005, the robotic probe "Huygens" lands on Saturn's moon Titan. 40 years later, a radio telescope receives signals from the far away moon that can only come from the long forgotten lander.

At the same time, an expedition returns from neighbouring moon Enceladus. The crew lands on Titan and finds a dangerous secret that risks their return to Earth. Meanwhile, on Enceladus a deathly race has started that nobody thought was possible. And its outcome can only be decided by the astronauts that are stuck on Titan.

©2018 Brandon Q. Morris (P)2019 Brandon Q. Morris

Interesting book, odd execution

Fun story interesting idea. Odd execution in that the author did not use contractions. The reader/performer seems to accentuate this, and actually adds little cheerful lilts sometimes on to serious passages. Perhaps some of this is on purpose? I am left scratching my head and wondering. I realize this was likely translated from German. But editors should be solving these problems for the author. Over all the text is reminiscent of lines from a godzilla movie or any movie Native American character played by Lou Diamond Phillip's. All said, this is still an interesting story. And in a genre with too much magic and superman heroes wielding swords and blasters, this is some fun and plausible actual science fiction.

Good but with flaws

The story, when the author actually gets around to telling it instead of concentrating on the introspective thoughts and musings of the characters is interesting. The nasally voice of the narrator gets on my nerves, especially the way he rushes through every sentence making them sound like they should be a fragments. Then you have the author's attention to detail, endless detail, how every character looks, what they feel from seen to seen, what they see and what they feel and think about what they seeing. There is a lot of fluff. The way every single thing in the book is described in painstaking detail you would think this was a script for a movie that requires long, flowery descriptions to easily translate into the visual medium. The punctuation and tenor makes every character seem like they are recording an official report: MM/D/YYYY At X time I got up. I walked over and looked out the window. I got something to eat. I put on my suit. I walked outside. I was not concerned. MM/DD/YYYYY X/Time I looked down at my shoe. I thought this and then thought back to my childhood and my abusive father. I looked at the lake. I decided to test the lake composition by sticking my hand into the lake to see if it was cold. On and on and on. It gets old fast. Also there are no contractions used. Everything it cold and 'proper' English. Instead of I'm or You've or Shouldn't it is I am, You have, I should not, etc.

Good, hard science fiction.

This is a very good science fiction book. It kept me involved to the end - and beyond. I've started the next book on the series.

I can't make up my mind on this story....

Like all books, it's up to the readers to listen and value the story. I can't comment too much as at times I enjoyed it, other times I could have put it aside. Whatever you decide, is entirely up to you. It's not a bad choice.... but possibly not the best.